Pro-Palestinian activists stage Cal State LA ‘die-in’ after encampment cleared, negotiations stalled

Just two weeks after police cleared a student-led pro-Palestinian encampment at Cal State Los Angeles, student activists staged a campus ‘die-in’ on Monday afternoon — hoping to increase pressure on their demands that the East L.A. university divest from Israeli interests.

“Long live Palestine!” the students chanted. “We will continue to fight for disclosure and divestment.”

The “die-in” demonstration, where participants gather and lie down as if they were dead, was staged at the Student Union building Monday. Protestors were seen inside lying down, holding bloodied sheets — meant to look like babies — and wearing fake blood on their clothes and hands, to signify the lives lost since Israeli officials ramped up their offensive in Gaza against the Hamas militant group.

More than 1,000 were killed when Hamas launched its surprise attack on Israel last Oct. 7, when thousands of militants rampaged across southern Israeli military bases and communities. Another 250 were taken captive into Gaza, according to Israeli authorities. The ensuing war sparked by the assault has killed more than 34,700 Palestinians, according to local health officials.

One participant said the campus “die-in” was a “symbolic representation of the lives that have been lost in Gaza.”

“We’re trying to not only bring awareness to that, but it’s a physical thing that people have to see and hopefully spread urgency and awareness of the cause and why it is so important,” the student, who asked not to be named due to safety concerns, said.

The demonstration ended around 7 p.m., students said. At least one counterprotestor was seen. Campus police were seen monitoring the situation, but no activity was reported.

Monday’s “die-in” was organized by the CSULA chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine, which also started a mostly peaceful encampment outside the school’s gymnasium.

The effort, which involved daily programming and occasional campus rallies as the school year wrapped up its last month in May, lasted more than 40 days and was one of the longest, growing college encampments in support of Palestine.

Police cleared the encampment on June 17, weeks after the formal school year ended, with no arrests or use of force, university officials said. Students said that the encampment sweep trashed many of the items and artwork inside.

Days before on June 12, the protestors staged a sit-in and vandalized the Student Services building while school administrators — including university President Berenecea Eanes — were inside, officials confirmed. The protestors barricaded the entrance with umbrellas, tables and chairs, according to reports, and some chained themselves to the building. During the building occupation, officials reported smashed and broken windows, graffiti, overturned golf carts and more. Officials also said that three employees and one student reported assaults at different times and places in the building.

The school sent out a shelter-in-place order that day and told others to leave campus. Most of the protesters voluntarily left the Student Services building early the next morning, and returned to the existing pro-Palestinian encampment outside the school gym a few meters away. The remaining handful were coaxed out by university officials a short time later, officials said.

Later that day, President Eanes condemned the “violence and destruction” of the building, telling encampment members that they “crossed a line” and must leave. As long as the encampment remained peaceful, Eanes said, university officials allowed it to stay, amid ongoing negotiations with the encampment leaders about their demands.

All summer classes and campus operations were moved online between June 13 and June 23, officials said.

“To be clear, once those associated with the encampment engaged in unlawful acts that put staff and students in the (Student Services building) at risk, including assault, vandalism, destruction of property, and looting, the only acceptable option for the safety of the entire campus community was for the encampment to disband and disperse,” Eanes said in a June 18 statement. “We will not negotiate with those who would use destruction and intimidation to meet their goals.”

A CSULA spokesperson confirmed Monday that the damages to the Student Services Building were “extensive” and that they are still estimating the costs for repairs.

The budget “allocated to repair and replacement will inevitably affect other funding priorities; whether deferred maintenance, operating funds, or services,” the spokesperson said.

As clean-up and repairs continue, officials temporarily relocated some Student Services offices — such as the admissions and financial aid departments — remotely and to other campus buildings.

Nationwide, colleges including Columbia, Cornell and Harvard universities — as well as numerous Southern California schools like UC Irvine, UCLA, USC, Cal State Long Beach, UC Riverside and others — captured global media attention, with students fighting for a “free Palestine” and for their universities to divest from Israel.

Among the students’ demands at CSULA included an audit and “subsequent divestment” of all university funds “related to Israel, Israeli products or Israeli weapons, tech, surveillance and construction companies.”

One SJP protestor, who asked to remain anonymous due to safety concerns, said Monday that SJP students will continue to hold protests, rallies and informational events, in hopes of getting the university to divest and disclose.

“I decided to get involved because I really believed in the demands, specifically divestment,” the student, a Chicano Studies major, said. “Our school is a publicly funded university and should absolutely be divesting from companies that are profiting from genocide and things like that.”

The student also said that, per previous negotiations with SJP, Eanes had until June 30 to provide a report of “direct and indirect investments.”

“It’s July 1, and we did not get a report of the financial information,” she said. “Eanes sent out a campus-wide email a couple of days ago where she basically said that she was unwilling to continue negotiating. We are still waiting for response to our divestment demand. Disclosure is great, but it should be something that already is publicly available, since this is a publicly-funded university.”

Protestors chant during the die in pic.twitter.com/ecMu7OFpdc

— Victoria Ivie (@vwritesap) July 1, 2024

On Instagram, the students expressed their dismay at how the once-smooth negotiations with President Eanes and officials seemed to be over.

“No students will be graduating in Gaza this year. Eanes has made it clear that she will no longer be negotiating with us,” they wrote. “Despite the ongoing extermination campaigns across the world, Eanes has chosen to continue our complicity in all of it…how is this not violent to President Eanes? She refuses to acknowledge this ongoing violence against Palestine as a genocide and continues to make CSULA complicit.”

In a community-wide message on June 27, Eanes stated that the university embraces free speech and the right to peaceful public protest. She reiterated her support for “financial transparency,” mental health resources — including a university psychiatrist — and “shared governance.” She also said the university will launch its website “for easy access to Cal State L.A.’s financial information” by fall of this year.

Members of the encampment “will not receive any special treatment when it comes to policymaking,” Eanes wrote, “but I welcome all students, faculty and staff… to address any policy changes they wish.”

“This is how we make change together,” she said.

Staff writer Allyson Vergara, City News Service and the Associated Press contributed to this report.